31 U.S.

261
6 Pet. 261
8 L.Ed. 391

JAMES M'DONALD'S HEIRS, APPELLANTS

v.
FREEMAN SMALLEY AND OTHERS, APPELLEES.
January Term, 1832

APPEAL from the circuit court of the United States for the district of
Ohio.
This case was argued by Messrs Vinton and Doddridge, for the appellants;
and by Messrs Corwin was Bibb, for the appellees.
Mr Chief Justice MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was brought in the court of the United States for the seventh circuit,
and district of Ohio, to obtain a conveyance for land which the defendants hold
by a senior patent, and which the plaintiffs claim under a prior entry. The bill
was dismissed by the circuit court, and the plaintiffs have appealed to this
court.

Serious doubts exist respecting the validity of the entry under which the claim
has been made, and several points have been discussed at the bar. It is
unnecessary to decide more than one of these questions, because that is decisive
of the case. David Anderson, in whose name the entry under which the
plaintiffs claim was made, was dead at the time. The entry, therefore, as was
determined in Galt and others v. Galloway, 4 Peters, 332, 345, is, in the state of
Ohio, a nullity. This being the foundation of the plaintiffs' title, they must fail
in their action.

Counsel at the bar have endeavoured to distinguish this case from that, by
treating the entry as one made in the name of the wrong person, through the
mistake of the surveyor.

We do not think he is sustained by the fact or the law of the case. The decree is

affirmed with costs.